A Cherokee Teaching
 

Change your Thoughts - Change your Outlook;
Change your Outlook - Change your World.
Two Wolves: A Cherokee Teaching

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http://www.turtlezen.com/Grey%20Wolv....%20Alaska.jpg



An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life...

He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

One wolf is evil -- he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.

The other is good---he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one you feed".

I like that one. I'm going to use it.

The complete splitting of good and evil part kind of makes it useless though. Both wolves would be getting dinner in my case, no way I'm giving up my competitive drive.

It's navel gazing.

At least they are billed as equals, and as existing inside yourself. As opposed to outside forces, one of which is a superior being.

Indeed. A good lesson.

Your mom's navel gazing.

It also doesn't categorize good and evil properly. Competition is not evil, nor is fear, anger, or ego in all but a few cases. Too mushy to carry a message. :headshake

...but if you feed those things to the exclusion of the others you will be evil.

Well then think about it given in the context for which it was made. Forget about the photo.

It's a story by people who made story telling an art. Imagine an old man sitting around a fire at night with his family. He sees his grand children are growing up. They have emotions just like anyone. He tells them basically we all have these feelings which sometimes oppose each other.

He tells them without lecturing.Whatever emotion you feed will become stronger. Arn't there times when we tamp down our own negative emotions because there is a better emotion like hope?

When we feed our fears we become fearful. When we feed our hope we become hopeful.

Yeah, that worked for children of primitives, but now we're civilized... we drug 'em.

Please list your medical qualifications to make such a remark.

Wouldn't you like to know;)

Wouldn't that make the story kind of irrelevant to us now?:right:

No, if you constantly encourage yourself to hate your surroundings, you'll find it harder and harder to enjoy them. If you train yourself to find people's flaws, you'll get better at it and worse at finding their better traits.

This is a parable, and you're supposed to overlook the tiny details in search of the greater intent. And I think it's very relevant, and will be for a very very long time.